A Theft — With a Trial!

Perhaps the boldest of thieves would never think of stealing from a courtroom under the very nose of its judge!... Yet that is what happened in one of the courts of a certain town in Sweden. While the session was in progress, a person entered the hall and began taking down the wall clock. The judge rebuked him, but the man explained that he would have no other opportunity to come and take the clock away for repair; whereupon the judge allowed him to finish his work. So he dismounted the clock, carried off its parts, and walked out in perfect safety.

After the session was over, the judge asked certain officials what was meant by sending the clockmaker at the very hour the court was sitting to take the clock away — and it quickly came out that the supposed clockmaker was nothing but a thief who had stolen the clock by his droll ruse, and no trace of him was ever found afterward!